OK. I'm feeling vaguely ambitious. I'll show up with my feminine guard to make the fourth. If anyone else wants to take the fourth slot, post here before 4:00 PM Thursday.
I've few comments for Jeff. In both games you made some fairly common beginner mistakes, even if you ended up clobbering me in the first game.
The first is in starting with your guys well to the rear in perfectly safe positions. You need to be within 24 inches of the enemy to use your primary weapons, your bolters. You are better at close combat than either Tao or Guard, so the closer the better. By positioning your units so far to the rear, it took you a few extra turns before you could really engage the enemy. In the case of the second two players on two game, the orcs were essentially gone before the marines entered the battle. We were able to fight two armies against one, then after defeating the orcs we were able to fight two armies against the marines.
You might consider more forward aggressive deployment. If the other guy has the first turn, sure, you will take some lumps. However, marine armor will reduce the size of the lumps.
The second thing to watch is hitting the enemy with one of your unit at a time. In the second fight, we had one turn where a whole bunch of our guys were clobbering the rhino. The next turn, a whole bunch of our guys were clobbering a tactical squad. The next turn, a whole bunch of our guys were going to clobber the terminators.
Confederate General Forrest said war was about getting there firstest with the mostus. If a whole bunch of our forces are sitting there waiting for one of your units, you didn't get there firstest with the mostus. If you keep dribbling in one unit at a time into and ambush of a bunch of our units, the result won't be pleasant for you.
While getting to the critical point of the field quickly is important, if you don't show up with enough force all together to match what the enemy has, you might as well wait for enough reinforcements to get there so your attack has a reasonable chance to succeed.
Of course, maneuvering so that all of your forces are engaged while only a few of the enemy units are engaged is difficult to do against an experienced opponent. Still, it might be one of things you might try for.
Bob